January 25, 2026 • 24 mins
A snowbound Kentucky chat meets sunny Jacksonville plans as we sit down with Bob Tate from IPMS First Coast to explore how JaxCon reshaped the classic model show into a warm, community-first experience. Think Friday evening setup and a pizza social to slow the pace, then a crisp Saturday run with registration at 9, judging at noon, and a focused awards wrap by 5. It’s efficient, friendly, and designed so builders, vendors, and visitors all get time to breathe and actually talk models.
We dive into the heart of their approach: an open gold, silver, bronze system that evaluates each model on its own merits. No podium pressure, just recognition for quality work. Bob explains how initial resistance gave way to buy-in once people saw honest standards and consistent results, and why they still zone tables by genre for judging flow and easier browsing. The result? Strong turnout with 150+ entrants, 600+ models, and a calmer show floor where learning beats rivalry.
JaxCon’s extras add real value. A sold-out vendor hall arrives early on Friday, three food trucks keep lines short, and the raffle is both exciting and strategic. One-dollar random draws every half hour keep the buzz going, while five and ten-dollar targeted tickets let you aim for high-value kits. That structure raises enough to offer free public admission, which brings new eyes to the hobby without raising participant fees. This year’s theme, 80 years of the Blue Angels—rooted in Jacksonville’s history—anchors special awards alongside memorial trophies that honor club members and their passions.
If you’re planning to attend regional shows or thinking about how to evolve your own, JaxCon offers a practical blueprint: reward excellence, encourage connection, and make the logistics work for people first. Enjoy the insights, steal a few ideas, and share your favorite show innovations with us. If this spotlight helped, follow, rate, and leave a quick review so more builders can find the show.
In addition to JaxCon, a couple of other shows we would like to promote are:
4M Mayhem hosted my the Mid-Michigan Model Makers on February 7th
and
AMPS-Atlanta 2026 on February 20-21
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Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Janelle (KitMasx) (00:00):
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Kevin (KITMASX) (00:55):
You're not a modeler.
Kentucky Dave (01:12):
Staying warm, Kentucky Dave.
I'm trying to, man.
It is cold and snowy.
This thing that they said wascoming, it came.
Mike (01:21):
It's coming.
We'll see how bad it gets, butuh not too terrible yet, except
for the cold.
But we got another 24 hours ofthis precipitation.
Kentucky Dave (01:29):
So it's gonna be a lot.
Yep.
And I'll tell you what, Ialmost the cold is worse than
the snow for me.
Mike (01:38):
It can be.
It makes it no fun to doanything outside.
Kentucky Dave (01:41):
Yep.
Mike (01:41):
Well, Dave, we've struggled a little bit this
month to get a show Spotlightout, and we kind of teased that
the PSA we did for Brandon andWinter Blitz might be it.
But we f shit.
We finally got somebody we wantto talk to.
Yep.
They agreed to it and we workedit out.
So we do have one to promotefor uh the upcoming month of
February, and we're gonna godown to a region 11
(02:03):
figuratively.
We're not actually going downthere, unfortunately.
Might be nice now.
Region 11, IPMS First Coastchapter in Jacksonville,
Florida, Dave.
We got Mr.
Bob Tate from that club, andhe's gonna tell us all about
JaxCon.
Well, Dave, as we're gettingready for Snow Mageddon up here
(02:24):
in central Kentucky, we have aguest from Jacksonville,
Florida.
Mr.
Bob Tate from the IPMS FirstCoast chapter, Region 11.
Bob, how are you doing tonight?
Bob Tate (02:35):
I'm doing very well, thanks.
Thank you, gentlemen, forhaving me.
Mike (02:38):
Well, we hear you got a show coming up, and we're trying
to promote shows, and I wasgoing through the details of
your show and thought it wouldbe worthwhile to let the
modeling community know for kindof twofold.
One to get word out for folksin your geography that maybe
they don't know about it.
That'd be hard to believe, butit sure certainly happens, or in
a commutable distance and maypush them over the edge to
(02:59):
actually come to the show.
And the other is for otherclubs to and modelers to learn
about what other clubs are doingas far as their shows go,
because a lot of folks thesedays are doing some different
things, and things are gettinginteresting on the show front.
So your your show lookedinviting for that kind of thing.
So we want to talk to you guys.
So give us the uh the ins andouts, the who, the W's, the who,
(03:20):
what's and where's about yourupcoming show.
Bob Tate (03:22):
Okay.
Well, first of all, it isJack'sCon 2026.
It will be on Friday afternoon,February 6th, and all day on
Saturday, February 7th.
The Friday afternoon is reallya setup time to allow vendors to
come in, and we do have somepre-registration models can
bring their models in.
(03:43):
And we also have kind of asocial hour at the end of it,
you know, just to mix a littlebit prior to the show the next
day.
But the real show starts,registration starts at 9 a.m.
And then we hope and expect tohave judging done and awards
done by 5 p.m.
on the on Saturday.
Our show is held at the NorthJacksonville Baptist Church
(04:06):
Fellowship Hall, real quickly,8531, North Main Street,
Jacksonville, Florida.
And you can of course Google itand forget directions to it.
Kentucky Dave (04:14):
Now, how long have you all been running a show
in Jacksonville?
Bob Tate (04:18):
It's we've uh had a show for uh more than 20 years.
Actually, I came in about 10years in, so I'm not exactly uh
sure of the start date, but itwas early in uh in the uh 2000s
that we started this show.
Mike (04:30):
Well, I'm gonna back up a little bit.
Your show, this show, JaxCon,is about the third one, I think,
who's doing a day plus doingthe Friday before, doing some
stuff.
I think Chattanooga does that,Dave.
Yep.
And then somebody else, one ofour recent ones, also does that.
I just want to know how that'sbeen perceived and and how that
works on the ground as far as,well, not the logistics of it,
but do folks like having thatextra time at the front end?
(04:53):
Do you get you get a fairamount of participation?
I assume you do from thevendors.
Bob Tate (04:57):
Absolutely.
The vendors love it becausethey don't have to get up at
O-Dark 30 to come in and get setup.
And and you know, the the earlymorning preparation is always a
madhouse.
So we've basically spread itout to the night before.
We, you know, that's the mainpurpose is to get the uh the
vendors in, uh, though we dohave an opportunity that for
(05:17):
people who want to go ahead andcome and register and and put
their models on the table thatevening.
Our raffle, which is a reallybig part of our show, is we get
a lot of models to put out.
I can talk about that in alittle bit if we have time.
And so we get that set up.
And then we have just kind of asocial hour.
We uh bring in about 15 pizzasand they offer it for free for
(05:40):
anybody there, just to you know,come in and socialize and and
talk modeling because we findthat uh during a show, you know,
everybody's so busy you justnever really have time to do
much more than just say hey.
Kentucky Dave (05:51):
Bob, I'm really thrilled to hear that because
Mike and I were both both bigpromoters of shows.
And one of the things that weboth emphasize on in regard to
shows is the social aspect, themodelers getting together and
seeing either guys that you seeevery year at the show or people
(06:14):
that you've never met before,but you may have interacted with
online, and bringing in pizzaand sitting around and spending
time talking about models andthe show and whatever else you
end up talking about.
We're we're both big fans ofthat.
So I'm I'm thrilled to hearthat the club supports that by
(06:38):
bringing in the pizzas and andmaking available time and a
space for people to do that.
Bob Tate (06:45):
Well, thank you.
We would definitely agree.
We we've got a lot of feed goodfeedback about it, and uh it's
it's a uh a routine that wewould intend to continue.
Mike (06:53):
Good.
Another thing that made me takeinterest in your show, it's a
it's uh another of a, in myopinion, a growing number of
clubs who are who are running anopen gold, silver, bronze
system.
I'd be curious to know how longyou guys have done that and
what's been the generalreception in in Region 11 down
there where you guys are.
Bob Tate (07:12):
Uh we've been doing it for several years now.
I don't know the exact, but Iwould guess that as time flies,
it's probably been at least fouror five years that we've had
gold, silver, bronze.
And uh frankly, initially therewas an awful lot of opposition
within our club about it becausepeople were just used to the
competition, the first, second,and third.
(07:33):
And frankly, people like to beable to say, hey, I got first
prize in the uh you know the 48to scale German aircraft
category.
However, uh we uh overcame thatopposition and we found that
that uh we really like it as aclub.
(07:54):
I really can't speak foreverybody, and we haven't done
any kind of uh polling of the uhpeople that enter in our
contest, or I should say ourshow, because it's not a
contest.
But uh we've gotten a lot ofpositive feedback.
And the one of the biggestcriticisms of it, or at least
the uh I guess the opposition ispeople think it's gonna become
(08:17):
just a participation award, thateverybody gets a gold.
But uh we have found that justwith honest judging, that uh
roughly it really is quarters.
What you know, about 25% of theparticipants get a gold, 25 get
a bronze, 25 get a silver, andthen there are 25 that uh get
away with just a participationbadge.
(08:37):
Which really sounds pretty fairwhen you consider that that
people that enter these contestsare generally the best of the
best, or that uh uh thecompetition is really fierce.
But it's not a competitionanymore.
It is a recognition ofexcellent work.
And that's our intention, and Ithink people really appreciate
(08:59):
that they can walk by away witha gold medal that still really
means something.
Kentucky Dave (09:03):
Well, I assume that once you made the
changeover and peopleexperienced it for a couple of
years, there's has there beenany push among your club members
or to switch back?
Bob Tate (09:18):
No, none at all.
Uh we're just all really I Ithink as a club I can really
speak that uh we're veryenthusiastic about the formula
and no, we won't go back.
Mike (09:26):
Well, I've looked at your website and you you do have a
couple things going there.
You you do have writtenstandards for each of the the uh
the meddling categorycategories.
And then you've sounds like,and you can elaborate a little
bit, it sounds like you've setthe table for the the entries up
just as zones based on looselybased on general genre of the
subject matter.
(09:47):
Is that correct?
Bob Tate (09:48):
Yeah, we still do that, and honestly, it really
doesn't matter because you'rejudging you know just one model
you know by itself, but it is westill keep them within the
genres and subcategories and soon, mostly so that people, when
they're looking at it, you know,again, a 148-scale German
airplane, uh, you know, can lookat all the others in the area
(10:08):
and it and you know, all in onelocation.
And so it it makes it easierfor for judging because the
judging is you know they stillare or judging by category, and
also for the general public asthey're walking around to be
able to conveniently see themodels on display.
Kentucky Dave (10:25):
Yeah, almost all of the open systems, gold,
silver, bronze that we'veencountered do the same thing,
even though you're you'recorrect.
Technically, you don't need toorganize into categories and all
for display purposes and forviewing purposes.
Well, and for judging purposes,too.
Right.
It still makes sense to dothat.
Mike (10:47):
But I guess I was assuming it was not quite as granular if
you'd split everything down byscale and number of engines and
all that stuff.
Bob Tate (10:54):
Yeah, and then frankly, also for the judge's
point of view.
I mean, you you when you've gota judge is he's gonna be
judging all cars, or a judgewho's gonna be calling judging
aircraft, and that way they'renot bouncing around from table
to table trying to find a looseuh model in some you know far
off table in the corner.
Mike (11:10):
Your subject matter experts just have one or two
places to go instead of all overthe show floor.
Yes.
That's right.
Trying to find all the entries.
So really interesting.
I I think uh you said you'venot done any polling, but I
think if you change yourperspective a little bit, you
actually have, because folks arestill coming to your show.
What's kind of size-wise numberof well, there's two ways to
(11:31):
look at it, number of entrantsas far as people actually
bringing things, and then thenumber of entries on the tables
when it's all said and done.
What's what's kind of what'sthat looking like?
Bob Tate (11:41):
Well, uh our last show, I don't know the exact
numbers, but we had well over150 enter or I should say yeah,
entries with uh over 600 modelson the table.
Mike (11:54):
Okay, so uh for that's a good turn.
For an invitational type show,that's that's a really, really
good, that's a strong turnout.
So yeah, so there's yourpolling right there.
Folks are fine with it.
They're bringing 600 models tothis thing.
Very interesting.
Kentucky Dave (12:09):
On Saturday, you say registration opens at nine,
then closes about what?
Bob Tate (12:15):
It closes at noon, and then we rope off the uh the
show area from the vendors area,and and then so that the judges
can have no distractions whilethey judge.
And the judging normally goes,of course, that's one of our
biggest problems with our showis having enough judges.
Kentucky Dave (12:35):
Right.
Bob Tate (12:39):
Uh, because of course the number of judges determines
how quickly we get through andand get to the award ceremony.
But typically we start at noonwith the judging, and about 4:30
they're done, and the awardceremony usually wraps up.
We don't really do every award,of course.
We just recognize the uh thespecial and the uh theme and
category awards, and then andthe medals themselves of gold,
(13:02):
silver, and bronze are just puton the table next to the models.
Kentucky Dave (13:05):
Now you mentioned special awards or theme awards.
What are you what's your themethis year, and what's in
addition to the gold, silver,bronze, and the category, the
best of, what other specialtyawards do you have this year?
Bob Tate (13:21):
Oh boy, I can name a few.
I couldn't give you exhaustivelists, but our theme.
Yeah, our theme is 80 years ofthe Blue Angels.
So the special award is for thebest Blue Angels display,
because I don't know if you'reaware of it.
The Blue Angels started inJacksonville, Florida back in
1946.
Kentucky Dave (13:40):
Don't tell anybody from Pensacola that.
That's right.
Bob Tate (13:44):
Yep, we're the birthplace.
There's no doubt about it.
They recognize it too.
And then uh we have a series ofspecial awards, uh, things like
uh the I'll just say the uh thebest armor, the best aircraft,
uh best natural metal finish,you know, best ship, and things
like that.
Uh and then we have a couple ofuh special awards.
Uh we have a uh a couple of ourmembers who passed away during
(14:08):
the last year.
For instance, uh Buck Dean wasa big armor guy.
So we are having a specialaward, the Buck Dean Award for
the best German armor, as anexample.
Kentucky Dave (14:20):
Yeah, a lot of clubs do that to honor members
who have passed.
I'm glad to hear your club isdoing that too.
Mike (14:26):
What's the vendor landscape looking like?
If they're all going to come inearly, hopefully there's a lot
of them.
Bob Tate (14:32):
Yeah, we have well, I better, I'm only guessing that
uh first of all, all of all ofour tables are sold out.
I'll just say that.
Okay.
That's good.
Mike (14:40):
That is good.
All right.
And I, you know, a lot of timesit's a mix of collection
dispositions and then hobbyshops.
And is there any any anynotables that come to your show
down that area?
I'm not familiar with uh thatthat part of the modeling world
down there.
Bob Tate (14:54):
I really can't speak to that.
We've had one or two onoccasion, like grec uh
airbrushes and things like that.
Oh, okay.
A couple of the decalcompanies, as I recall.
But then generally virtuallyall of our vendors are just
local, you know, Southeast U.S.
vendors, mom and pop kind of uhum operations that just you
know bounce from show to showevery week.
Kentucky Dave (15:16):
Do you all have food on site or food nearby, or
how are people getting their feetheir food intake during the
show?
Bob Tate (15:24):
Well, the answer is we don't have any food.
It's it's a church meetinghall, and that's too hard to try
to do anything there, though itwouldn't be that hard, but uh
we have three vendor trucks thatwill be there, one serving
breakfast, one serving you know,tacos and things like that, and
then and a burger joint.
Okay, so three food trucks.
Yeah, and they do very well.
(15:44):
They're very happy to comeback.
Kentucky Dave (15:46):
That's good news.
Uh the food trucks is anothertrend that Mike and I have been
seeing, because you're right, alot of the clubs, the venues are
either church halls or schoolhalls or stuff like that where
there's not food truly on site,but you can bring in food
trucks, put them in the parkinglot, and it's pretty much the
(16:07):
same thing, especially inbeautiful Florida weather.
Mike (16:11):
Yep, it's gonna be 71 degrees tomorrow, by the way.
I think it's gonna change.
It's still gonna be better thanhere, Mike.
It probably will be.
Yep.
Well, Bob, you mentioned yourraffle and said you would say a
little bit more about that.
Bob Tate (16:23):
Yeah, uh honestly, our raffle, we're very proud of it,
and be it for a couple ofreasons.
One is it is extremely popular.
Second of all, it is a realgood moneymaker uh for us.
We normally bring in somewhereclose to $1,000 in donations to
the raffle, uh each JAXCon,which really comes very close,
(16:46):
or actually it allows us to havefree admission.
You know, we we have, ofcourse, a uh registration fee
for the models, but for thegeneral public, it's free.
Kentucky Dave (16:55):
That's fantastic.
Mike (16:56):
That is.
That's that's a new thingthere.
I don't think I've heard thatbefore, Dave.
Kentucky Dave (17:00):
No, I don't think so.
Usually there's at least alittle charge for general
admission, but it's great thatyour finances are set up in such
a way that you can encouragethe general public or not
discourage them by by making itfree to come and look.
Bob Tate (17:18):
Yeah, the the way we run the raffle is that first of
all, we take donationsthroughout the year and we
accumulate somewhere over ahundred kits of all different
genres.
We try to get a good spreadover armor, ships, cars,
aircraft, figures, and so on.
And then we have threecategories of raffle tickets.
(17:38):
The one is just a generalraffle in which, you know, like
for instance, I'll just take anexample for uh cars.
Just uh your normal AMT kit,you know we'll have a stack of
around 30 of them, and ticketsfor them are one dollar.
And what we do is that we drawtickets every half hour, and the
so you can you can get a kitfor one dollar.
(18:01):
The problem is you don't get toselect a kit.
It's random within that shotwithin that particular category.
And then that's so we have like10 or 15 different categories.
And then the then we have forbigger ticket items, more
expensive kits, we will have afive-dollar ticket and a $10
ticket.
And in that case, you areactually when you put your
(18:22):
ticket in the bucket, you areactually trying to get a
particular model.
Again, taking an example, say132nd scale uh F4 Phantom.
When you put your $5 ticket infor that bucket, you're only
trying to win that particularmodel.
Kentucky Dave (18:38):
Yeah, a lot a lot of uh clubs seem to be going to
the raffle and super raffletype format where you have
bigger higher ticket items, butthe tickets are more expensive
and they're focused on eitherone or just a few items.
Mike (18:57):
Is there anything else unique about JAXCON you'd want
folks to know that's maybe asdifferent than most of the other
shows?
Bob Tate (19:04):
Well, no, not really.
I can't I can't think ofanything as a comparison.
I would just speak about ourour club and the way we run it.
It you know, we recognize thatmodeling ultimately is simply a
hobby.
It's something that people dofor fun.
And that was one of the reasonswhy we went to Gold, Silver,
Bronze is to take thecompetitive option, not option,
(19:25):
but competitive aspect to it andmake it more of an enjoyable
thing where you're recognizedfor the work that you do without
any of the competition thatsometimes really can get
cutthroat.
And so we're very happy withwith the way the show is run.
We run it at the North uhJacksonville Baptist Church.
(19:46):
They're very gracious hosts tous.
We have a devotional at noon inorder to uh recognize and thank
them for their uh sponsorshipof it.
I really have to say it's avery comfortable experience and
a very enjoyable experience,both for the To the vendors, the
uh competitors, or I should saythe showers.
Keep falling back into that.
And also to the general public.
Kentucky Dave (20:08):
Before we let you go, let's do a wrap-up one more
time of the when, the where,etc.
Okay.
Bob Tate (20:14):
Well, it's JAXCon 2026.
It will be on February 6th inthe afternoon, Friday from 5 to
8 for early registration and forvendor setup.
And then February 7th, Saturdayfrom 9 to 5 for model
registration.
And at noon, the uh judgingbegins.
(20:36):
And with the uh award ceremonyaround 5.
The North Jacksonville BaptistChurch Fellowship Hall is at
8531 North Main Street,Jacksonville, Florida, 32218.
And general admission is free.
Kentucky Dave (20:50):
That's fantastic.
Mike (20:51):
Well, Bob, thanks for stepping up and and offering us
the opportunity to help youpromote your show, and we wish
you the utmost success.
And sounds like a great show,Dave.
Kentucky Dave (21:00):
Yep, it does.
Hope for hopefully somebodyattending will take a lot of
pictures and post them to thedojo, our Facebook page, and
we'll get to see what it lookslike uh on the ground in
February.
Bob Tate (21:14):
Well, thank you very much, gentlemen, for the
opportunity.
I really appreciate it.
I hope you guys have a lovelyday and come on down and come to
Jacksonville.
Mike (21:24):
Well, Dave, it's another gold, silver, bronze.
It's another food trucks.
Yeah.
It's another show that's doingsome things that no.
When we were coming up in allthis doing the shows back in our
younger days, you know, foodtrucks weren't much of a thing
yet.
Kentucky Dave (21:39):
No, but it's a great innovation.
Um lots of contests are addingthem now.
And it's a whole lot easierthan having to go get in your
car and hunt to go someplace inthe middle of a contest.
And they're usually prettygood.
Mike (21:52):
Yes, they are.
Yes, they are.
Well, folks, if you're downthat way in Jacksonville,
Florida, or the commutable areaaround Jacksonville, take in the
show.
Again, it's a kind of a half,well, it's an evening on Friday
with the pizza social and thenall day Saturday.
So that's another thing somefolks are doing now.
That that really wasn't much ofa thing either until seems like
(22:12):
more recently.
Kentucky Dave (22:13):
And another thing, I like it.
I like the social aspect.
Mike (22:16):
Well, we had a couple other shows, Dave, we were
hoping to get on here, but I'mgonna go ahead and mention them.
We got Amps Atlanta 2026 comingup February 20th and 21st.
That's gonna be held at theHilton Atlanta, Marietta Hotel
and Conference Center Center inMarietta, Georgia.
We'll put links in the shownotes to this show.
And one reason folks might wantto consider this one is uh the
(22:39):
proximity to the armorcollection.
Yep.
So you may be able to take thatin as well.
And then our friends at uhMid-Michigan Model Makers.
Kentucky Dave (22:48):
Yep.
Mike (22:49):
Their 4M mayhem is coming up.
It's actually coming up sooner,February 7th, so it's about two
weeks away.
Kentucky Dave (22:56):
Yep.
Hopefully the weather clears upby then.
Mike (22:59):
Would hope it might not up there.
Yeah.
They're in Saginaw, Michigan,and the show is held at the
Saginaw Valley State University.
Theme this year is Red, White,and Blue 250.
It's a semi-quincentennialcelebration.
So uh says they got double thespace, double the vendors,
double the parking, and tentimes the fun at the 41st
anniversary for M.
(23:19):
Mayhem.
So shout out to themid-Michigan guys.
Wish them success as well.
So there's plenty of showscoming up in February, Dave.
Kentucky Dave (23:26):
Yep.
Mike (23:27):
Anything else?
Kentucky Dave (23:28):
No, I I would love to get down to the
Jacksonville show because man, Ifigured it'd be warmer than it
is here, but it ain't gonnahappen.
Not this year.
Mike (23:37):
Well, folks, if you're in the middle of this mess, be
safe, stay warm, don't anythingcrazy.
Stay inside if you can.
Kentucky Dave (23:43):
Yeah, get to the get to the bench and model.
Mike (23:46):
That's right.
Well, all right, Dave.
I hope that's what you're aboutto go to.
I'm gonna get away.
Kev, tell everyone why you started Kit
Mask.
Kevin (KITMASX) (00:02):
Well, manually masking canopy sucks and
somebody had to step in to savethose countless kits from the
shelf of Doom.
Janelle (KitMasx) (00:10):
And now we've got over 400 sets and counting.
We've got old kits, new kits,forgotten kits, you name it.
Kevin (KITMASX) (00:15):
Yeah.
And if we don't have it, justask.
Janelle (KitMasx) (00:17):
Yeah, people don't realize we take custom
requests and we even have aservice that gets you canopy
masks for free.
Kevin (KITMASX) (00:22):
We do.
Janelle (KitMasx) (00:22):
Our masks are precision cut, they fit well,
they're easy to apply.
Kevin cuts and tests every set.
Kevin (KITMASX) (00:29):
Several times.
Janelle (KitMasx) (00:30):
Yeah.
Precision is kind of his thing.
Kevin (KITMASX) (00:32):
And Janelle, she does everything else.
She cares about each customerand is the heart of our
business.
Janelle (KitMasx) (00:37):
If you ever reach out, you're talking
directly to us.
Real people, real modelers.
Kevin (KITMASX) (00:42):
And if you don't love your masks, we'll
refund or replace them.
No questions asked.
Janelle (KitMasx) (00:46):
Visit kitmask.com, join the mailing
list, and treat yourself toeasier, cleaner masking.
Kevin (KITMASX) (00:52):
Kitmask, made by a modeler for modelers.
Janelle (KitMasx) (00:54):
Hey, what about me?
Kevin (KITMASX) (00:55):
You're not a modeler.
Kentucky Dave (01:12):
Staying warm, Kentucky Dave.
I'm trying to, man.
It is cold and snowy.
This thing that they said wascoming, it came.
Mike (01:21):
It's coming.
We'll see how bad it gets, butuh not too terrible yet, except
for the cold.
But we got another 24 hours ofthis precipitation.
Kentucky Dave (01:29):
So it's gonna be a lot.
Yep.
And I'll tell you what, Ialmost the cold is worse than
the snow for me.
Mike (01:38):
It can be.
It makes it no fun to doanything outside.
Kentucky Dave (01:41):
Yep.
Mike (01:41):
Well, Dave, we've struggled a little bit this
month to get a show Spotlightout, and we kind of teased that
the PSA we did for Brandon andWinter Blitz might be it.
But we f shit.
We finally got somebody we wantto talk to.
Yep.
They agreed to it and we workedit out.
So we do have one to promotefor uh the upcoming month of
February, and we're gonna godown to a region 11
(02:03):
figuratively.
We're not actually going downthere, unfortunately.
Might be nice now.
Region 11, IPMS First Coastchapter in Jacksonville,
Florida, Dave.
We got Mr.
Bob Tate from that club, andhe's gonna tell us all about
JaxCon.
Well, Dave, as we're gettingready for Snow Mageddon up here
(02:24):
in central Kentucky, we have aguest from Jacksonville,
Florida.
Mr.
Bob Tate from the IPMS FirstCoast chapter, Region 11.
Bob, how are you doing tonight?
Bob Tate (02:35):
I'm doing very well, thanks.
Thank you, gentlemen, forhaving me.
Mike (02:38):
Well, we hear you got a show coming up, and we're trying
to promote shows, and I wasgoing through the details of
your show and thought it wouldbe worthwhile to let the
modeling community know for kindof twofold.
One to get word out for folksin your geography that maybe
they don't know about it.
That'd be hard to believe, butit sure certainly happens, or in
a commutable distance and maypush them over the edge to
(02:59):
actually come to the show.
And the other is for otherclubs to and modelers to learn
about what other clubs are doingas far as their shows go,
because a lot of folks thesedays are doing some different
things, and things are gettinginteresting on the show front.
So your your show lookedinviting for that kind of thing.
So we want to talk to you guys.
So give us the uh the ins andouts, the who, the W's, the who,
(03:20):
what's and where's about yourupcoming show.
Bob Tate (03:22):
Okay.
Well, first of all, it isJack'sCon 2026.
It will be on Friday afternoon,February 6th, and all day on
Saturday, February 7th.
The Friday afternoon is reallya setup time to allow vendors to
come in, and we do have somepre-registration models can
bring their models in.
(03:43):
And we also have kind of asocial hour at the end of it,
you know, just to mix a littlebit prior to the show the next
day.
But the real show starts,registration starts at 9 a.m.
And then we hope and expect tohave judging done and awards
done by 5 p.m.
on the on Saturday.
Our show is held at the NorthJacksonville Baptist Church
(04:06):
Fellowship Hall, real quickly,8531, North Main Street,
Jacksonville, Florida.
And you can of course Google itand forget directions to it.
Kentucky Dave (04:14):
Now, how long have you all been running a show
in Jacksonville?
Bob Tate (04:18):
It's we've uh had a show for uh more than 20 years.
Actually, I came in about 10years in, so I'm not exactly uh
sure of the start date, but itwas early in uh in the uh 2000s
that we started this show.
Mike (04:30):
Well, I'm gonna back up a little bit.
Your show, this show, JaxCon,is about the third one, I think,
who's doing a day plus doingthe Friday before, doing some
stuff.
I think Chattanooga does that,Dave.
Yep.
And then somebody else, one ofour recent ones, also does that.
I just want to know how that'sbeen perceived and and how that
works on the ground as far as,well, not the logistics of it,
but do folks like having thatextra time at the front end?
(04:53):
Do you get you get a fairamount of participation?
I assume you do from thevendors.
Bob Tate (04:57):
Absolutely.
The vendors love it becausethey don't have to get up at
O-Dark 30 to come in and get setup.
And and you know, the the earlymorning preparation is always a
madhouse.
So we've basically spread itout to the night before.
We, you know, that's the mainpurpose is to get the uh the
vendors in, uh, though we dohave an opportunity that for
(05:17):
people who want to go ahead andcome and register and and put
their models on the table thatevening.
Our raffle, which is a reallybig part of our show, is we get
a lot of models to put out.
I can talk about that in alittle bit if we have time.
And so we get that set up.
And then we have just kind of asocial hour.
We uh bring in about 15 pizzasand they offer it for free for
(05:40):
anybody there, just to you know,come in and socialize and and
talk modeling because we findthat uh during a show, you know,
everybody's so busy you justnever really have time to do
much more than just say hey.
Kentucky Dave (05:51):
Bob, I'm really thrilled to hear that because
Mike and I were both both bigpromoters of shows.
And one of the things that weboth emphasize on in regard to
shows is the social aspect, themodelers getting together and
seeing either guys that you seeevery year at the show or people
(06:14):
that you've never met before,but you may have interacted with
online, and bringing in pizzaand sitting around and spending
time talking about models andthe show and whatever else you
end up talking about.
We're we're both big fans ofthat.
So I'm I'm thrilled to hearthat the club supports that by
(06:38):
bringing in the pizzas and andmaking available time and a
space for people to do that.
Bob Tate (06:45):
Well, thank you.
We would definitely agree.
We we've got a lot of feed goodfeedback about it, and uh it's
it's a uh a routine that wewould intend to continue.
Mike (06:53):
Good.
Another thing that made me takeinterest in your show, it's a
it's uh another of a, in myopinion, a growing number of
clubs who are who are running anopen gold, silver, bronze
system.
I'd be curious to know how longyou guys have done that and
what's been the generalreception in in Region 11 down
there where you guys are.
Bob Tate (07:12):
Uh we've been doing it for several years now.
I don't know the exact, but Iwould guess that as time flies,
it's probably been at least fouror five years that we've had
gold, silver, bronze.
And uh frankly, initially therewas an awful lot of opposition
within our club about it becausepeople were just used to the
competition, the first, second,and third.
(07:33):
And frankly, people like to beable to say, hey, I got first
prize in the uh you know the 48to scale German aircraft
category.
However, uh we uh overcame thatopposition and we found that
that uh we really like it as aclub.
(07:54):
I really can't speak foreverybody, and we haven't done
any kind of uh polling of the uhpeople that enter in our
contest, or I should say ourshow, because it's not a
contest.
But uh we've gotten a lot ofpositive feedback.
And the one of the biggestcriticisms of it, or at least
the uh I guess the opposition ispeople think it's gonna become
(08:17):
just a participation award, thateverybody gets a gold.
But uh we have found that justwith honest judging, that uh
roughly it really is quarters.
What you know, about 25% of theparticipants get a gold, 25 get
a bronze, 25 get a silver, andthen there are 25 that uh get
away with just a participationbadge.
(08:37):
Which really sounds pretty fairwhen you consider that that
people that enter these contestsare generally the best of the
best, or that uh uh thecompetition is really fierce.
But it's not a competitionanymore.
It is a recognition ofexcellent work.
And that's our intention, and Ithink people really appreciate
(08:59):
that they can walk by away witha gold medal that still really
means something.
Kentucky Dave (09:03):
Well, I assume that once you made the
changeover and peopleexperienced it for a couple of
years, there's has there beenany push among your club members
or to switch back?
Bob Tate (09:18):
No, none at all.
Uh we're just all really I Ithink as a club I can really
speak that uh we're veryenthusiastic about the formula
and no, we won't go back.
Mike (09:26):
Well, I've looked at your website and you you do have a
couple things going there.
You you do have writtenstandards for each of the the uh
the meddling categorycategories.
And then you've sounds like,and you can elaborate a little
bit, it sounds like you've setthe table for the the entries up
just as zones based on looselybased on general genre of the
subject matter.
(09:47):
Is that correct?
Bob Tate (09:48):
Yeah, we still do that, and honestly, it really
doesn't matter because you'rejudging you know just one model
you know by itself, but it is westill keep them within the
genres and subcategories and soon, mostly so that people, when
they're looking at it, you know,again, a 148-scale German
airplane, uh, you know, can lookat all the others in the area
(10:08):
and it and you know, all in onelocation.
And so it it makes it easierfor for judging because the
judging is you know they stillare or judging by category, and
also for the general public asthey're walking around to be
able to conveniently see themodels on display.
Kentucky Dave (10:25):
Yeah, almost all of the open systems, gold,
silver, bronze that we'veencountered do the same thing,
even though you're you'recorrect.
Technically, you don't need toorganize into categories and all
for display purposes and forviewing purposes.
Well, and for judging purposes,too.
Right.
It still makes sense to dothat.
Mike (10:47):
But I guess I was assuming it was not quite as granular if
you'd split everything down byscale and number of engines and
all that stuff.
Bob Tate (10:54):
Yeah, and then frankly, also for the judge's
point of view.
I mean, you you when you've gota judge is he's gonna be
judging all cars, or a judgewho's gonna be calling judging
aircraft, and that way they'renot bouncing around from table
to table trying to find a looseuh model in some you know far
off table in the corner.
Mike (11:10):
Your subject matter experts just have one or two
places to go instead of all overthe show floor.
Yes.
That's right.
Trying to find all the entries.
So really interesting.
I I think uh you said you'venot done any polling, but I
think if you change yourperspective a little bit, you
actually have, because folks arestill coming to your show.
What's kind of size-wise numberof well, there's two ways to
(11:31):
look at it, number of entrantsas far as people actually
bringing things, and then thenumber of entries on the tables
when it's all said and done.
What's what's kind of what'sthat looking like?
Bob Tate (11:41):
Well, uh our last show, I don't know the exact
numbers, but we had well over150 enter or I should say yeah,
entries with uh over 600 modelson the table.
Mike (11:54):
Okay, so uh for that's a good turn.
For an invitational type show,that's that's a really, really
good, that's a strong turnout.
So yeah, so there's yourpolling right there.
Folks are fine with it.
They're bringing 600 models tothis thing.
Very interesting.
Kentucky Dave (12:09):
On Saturday, you say registration opens at nine,
then closes about what?
Bob Tate (12:15):
It closes at noon, and then we rope off the uh the
show area from the vendors area,and and then so that the judges
can have no distractions whilethey judge.
And the judging normally goes,of course, that's one of our
biggest problems with our showis having enough judges.
Kentucky Dave (12:35):
Right.
Bob Tate (12:39):
Uh, because of course the number of judges determines
how quickly we get through andand get to the award ceremony.
But typically we start at noonwith the judging, and about 4:30
they're done, and the awardceremony usually wraps up.
We don't really do every award,of course.
We just recognize the uh thespecial and the uh theme and
category awards, and then andthe medals themselves of gold,
(13:02):
silver, and bronze are just puton the table next to the models.
Kentucky Dave (13:05):
Now you mentioned special awards or theme awards.
What are you what's your themethis year, and what's in
addition to the gold, silver,bronze, and the category, the
best of, what other specialtyawards do you have this year?
Bob Tate (13:21):
Oh boy, I can name a few.
I couldn't give you exhaustivelists, but our theme.
Yeah, our theme is 80 years ofthe Blue Angels.
So the special award is for thebest Blue Angels display,
because I don't know if you'reaware of it.
The Blue Angels started inJacksonville, Florida back in
1946.
Kentucky Dave (13:40):
Don't tell anybody from Pensacola that.
That's right.
Bob Tate (13:44):
Yep, we're the birthplace.
There's no doubt about it.
They recognize it too.
And then uh we have a series ofspecial awards, uh, things like
uh the I'll just say the uh thebest armor, the best aircraft,
uh best natural metal finish,you know, best ship, and things
like that.
Uh and then we have a couple ofuh special awards.
Uh we have a uh a couple of ourmembers who passed away during
(14:08):
the last year.
For instance, uh Buck Dean wasa big armor guy.
So we are having a specialaward, the Buck Dean Award for
the best German armor, as anexample.
Kentucky Dave (14:20):
Yeah, a lot of clubs do that to honor members
who have passed.
I'm glad to hear your club isdoing that too.
Mike (14:26):
What's the vendor landscape looking like?
If they're all going to come inearly, hopefully there's a lot
of them.
Bob Tate (14:32):
Yeah, we have well, I better, I'm only guessing that
uh first of all, all of all ofour tables are sold out.
I'll just say that.
Okay.
That's good.
Mike (14:40):
That is good.
All right.
And I, you know, a lot of timesit's a mix of collection
dispositions and then hobbyshops.
And is there any any anynotables that come to your show
down that area?
I'm not familiar with uh thatthat part of the modeling world
down there.
Bob Tate (14:54):
I really can't speak to that.
We've had one or two onoccasion, like grec uh
airbrushes and things like that.
Oh, okay.
A couple of the decalcompanies, as I recall.
But then generally virtuallyall of our vendors are just
local, you know, Southeast U.S.
vendors, mom and pop kind of uhum operations that just you
know bounce from show to showevery week.
Kentucky Dave (15:16):
Do you all have food on site or food nearby, or
how are people getting their feetheir food intake during the
show?
Bob Tate (15:24):
Well, the answer is we don't have any food.
It's it's a church meetinghall, and that's too hard to try
to do anything there, though itwouldn't be that hard, but uh
we have three vendor trucks thatwill be there, one serving
breakfast, one serving you know,tacos and things like that, and
then and a burger joint.
Okay, so three food trucks.
Yeah, and they do very well.
(15:44):
They're very happy to comeback.
Kentucky Dave (15:46):
That's good news.
Uh the food trucks is anothertrend that Mike and I have been
seeing, because you're right, alot of the clubs, the venues are
either church halls or schoolhalls or stuff like that where
there's not food truly on site,but you can bring in food
trucks, put them in the parkinglot, and it's pretty much the
(16:07):
same thing, especially inbeautiful Florida weather.
Mike (16:11):
Yep, it's gonna be 71 degrees tomorrow, by the way.
I think it's gonna change.
It's still gonna be better thanhere, Mike.
It probably will be.
Yep.
Well, Bob, you mentioned yourraffle and said you would say a
little bit more about that.
Bob Tate (16:23):
Yeah, uh honestly, our raffle, we're very proud of it,
and be it for a couple ofreasons.
One is it is extremely popular.
Second of all, it is a realgood moneymaker uh for us.
We normally bring in somewhereclose to $1,000 in donations to
the raffle, uh each JAXCon,which really comes very close,
(16:46):
or actually it allows us to havefree admission.
You know, we we have, ofcourse, a uh registration fee
for the models, but for thegeneral public, it's free.
Kentucky Dave (16:55):
That's fantastic.
Mike (16:56):
That is.
That's that's a new thingthere.
I don't think I've heard thatbefore, Dave.
Kentucky Dave (17:00):
No, I don't think so.
Usually there's at least alittle charge for general
admission, but it's great thatyour finances are set up in such
a way that you can encouragethe general public or not
discourage them by by making itfree to come and look.
Bob Tate (17:18):
Yeah, the the way we run the raffle is that first of
all, we take donationsthroughout the year and we
accumulate somewhere over ahundred kits of all different
genres.
We try to get a good spreadover armor, ships, cars,
aircraft, figures, and so on.
And then we have threecategories of raffle tickets.
(17:38):
The one is just a generalraffle in which, you know, like
for instance, I'll just take anexample for uh cars.
Just uh your normal AMT kit,you know we'll have a stack of
around 30 of them, and ticketsfor them are one dollar.
And what we do is that we drawtickets every half hour, and the
so you can you can get a kitfor one dollar.
(18:01):
The problem is you don't get toselect a kit.
It's random within that shotwithin that particular category.
And then that's so we have like10 or 15 different categories.
And then the then we have forbigger ticket items, more
expensive kits, we will have afive-dollar ticket and a $10
ticket.
And in that case, you areactually when you put your
(18:22):
ticket in the bucket, you areactually trying to get a
particular model.
Again, taking an example, say132nd scale uh F4 Phantom.
When you put your $5 ticket infor that bucket, you're only
trying to win that particularmodel.
Kentucky Dave (18:38):
Yeah, a lot a lot of uh clubs seem to be going to
the raffle and super raffletype format where you have
bigger higher ticket items, butthe tickets are more expensive
and they're focused on eitherone or just a few items.
Mike (18:57):
Is there anything else unique about JAXCON you'd want
folks to know that's maybe asdifferent than most of the other
shows?
Bob Tate (19:04):
Well, no, not really.
I can't I can't think ofanything as a comparison.
I would just speak about ourour club and the way we run it.
It you know, we recognize thatmodeling ultimately is simply a
hobby.
It's something that people dofor fun.
And that was one of the reasonswhy we went to Gold, Silver,
Bronze is to take thecompetitive option, not option,
(19:25):
but competitive aspect to it andmake it more of an enjoyable
thing where you're recognizedfor the work that you do without
any of the competition thatsometimes really can get
cutthroat.
And so we're very happy withwith the way the show is run.
We run it at the North uhJacksonville Baptist Church.
(19:46):
They're very gracious hosts tous.
We have a devotional at noon inorder to uh recognize and thank
them for their uh sponsorshipof it.
I really have to say it's avery comfortable experience and
a very enjoyable experience,both for the To the vendors, the
uh competitors, or I should saythe showers.
Keep falling back into that.
And also to the general public.
Kentucky Dave (20:08):
Before we let you go, let's do a wrap-up one more
time of the when, the where,etc.
Okay.
Bob Tate (20:14):
Well, it's JAXCon 2026.
It will be on February 6th inthe afternoon, Friday from 5 to
8 for early registration and forvendor setup.
And then February 7th, Saturdayfrom 9 to 5 for model
registration.
And at noon, the uh judgingbegins.
(20:36):
And with the uh award ceremonyaround 5.
The North Jacksonville BaptistChurch Fellowship Hall is at
8531 North Main Street,Jacksonville, Florida, 32218.
And general admission is free.
Kentucky Dave (20:50):
That's fantastic.
Mike (20:51):
Well, Bob, thanks for stepping up and and offering us
the opportunity to help youpromote your show, and we wish
you the utmost success.
And sounds like a great show,Dave.
Kentucky Dave (21:00):
Yep, it does.
Hope for hopefully somebodyattending will take a lot of
pictures and post them to thedojo, our Facebook page, and
we'll get to see what it lookslike uh on the ground in
February.
Bob Tate (21:14):
Well, thank you very much, gentlemen, for the
opportunity.
I really appreciate it.
I hope you guys have a lovelyday and come on down and come to
Jacksonville.
Mike (21:24):
Well, Dave, it's another gold, silver, bronze.
It's another food trucks.
Yeah.
It's another show that's doingsome things that no.
When we were coming up in allthis doing the shows back in our
younger days, you know, foodtrucks weren't much of a thing
yet.
Kentucky Dave (21:39):
No, but it's a great innovation.
Um lots of contests are addingthem now.
And it's a whole lot easierthan having to go get in your
car and hunt to go someplace inthe middle of a contest.
And they're usually prettygood.
Mike (21:52):
Yes, they are.
Yes, they are.
Well, folks, if you're downthat way in Jacksonville,
Florida, or the commutable areaaround Jacksonville, take in the
show.
Again, it's a kind of a half,well, it's an evening on Friday
with the pizza social and thenall day Saturday.
So that's another thing somefolks are doing now.
That that really wasn't much ofa thing either until seems like
(22:12):
more recently.
Kentucky Dave (22:13):
And another thing, I like it.
I like the social aspect.
Mike (22:16):
Well, we had a couple other shows, Dave, we were
hoping to get on here, but I'mgonna go ahead and mention them.
We got Amps Atlanta 2026 comingup February 20th and 21st.
That's gonna be held at theHilton Atlanta, Marietta Hotel
and Conference Center Center inMarietta, Georgia.
We'll put links in the shownotes to this show.
And one reason folks might wantto consider this one is uh the
(22:39):
proximity to the armorcollection.
Yep.
So you may be able to take thatin as well.
And then our friends at uhMid-Michigan Model Makers.
Kentucky Dave (22:48):
Yep.
Mike (22:49):
Their 4M mayhem is coming up.
It's actually coming up sooner,February 7th, so it's about two
weeks away.
Kentucky Dave (22:56):
Yep.
Hopefully the weather clears upby then.
Mike (22:59):
Would hope it might not up there.
Yeah.
They're in Saginaw, Michigan,and the show is held at the
Saginaw Valley State University.
Theme this year is Red, White,and Blue 250.
It's a semi-quincentennialcelebration.
So uh says they got double thespace, double the vendors,
double the parking, and tentimes the fun at the 41st
anniversary for M.
(23:19):
Mayhem.
So shout out to themid-Michigan guys.
Wish them success as well.
So there's plenty of showscoming up in February, Dave.
Kentucky Dave (23:26):
Yep.
Mike (23:27):
Anything else?
Kentucky Dave (23:28):
No, I I would love to get down to the
Jacksonville show because man, Ifigured it'd be warmer than it
is here, but it ain't gonnahappen.
Not this year.
Mike (23:37):
Well, folks, if you're in the middle of this mess, be
safe, stay warm, don't anythingcrazy.
Stay inside if you can.
Kentucky Dave (23:43):
Yeah, get to the get to the bench and model.
Mike (23:46):
That's right.
Well, all right, Dave.
I hope that's what you're aboutto go to.
I'm gonna get away.
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